Steve, i saw it last summer at the Airborne museum in Arnhem. They have it playing on a 'loop' worth a mention, a truly fscinating piece of film-making...Jim

Another good movie that most have never seen is "Die Bruecke" (The Bridge). It was made in Germany in the early 60's and is set in a small German town in April of 1945. All the local high school boys get drafted into the home defense force. They wind up right back in their home town ordered to defend a small bridge against the Americans who are advancing. The old Wehrmacht Sgt who attempts to tell them to simply surrender to the overwhelming force (and hey the war is lost) has a run in with the SS guy and the movie gets interesting from there. Lots of interesting interpersonal sub plots going on along with the action.

Very good movie, I think available on tape still. I prefer the English subtitled version but that's just to try and keep my German skills up.

Tom

I saw that movie too while at the Institute. Don't remember much other than being extrremely transfixed by it.

Probably in Siegfried Weing's class I'll bet!

TC

Does anyone know when "Saints and Soldiers" is coming to video or DVD?

Is it not already? I saw it on dvd.

Ok...here's a thought to kick start the British war film industry...
Hugh Grant as Monty...A romantic comedy biopic showing the Field Marshal's kooky sense of humor and shy awkward side. :-)

What do ya think?

All joking aside, i must admit that it bugs me that hollywood films neglect to pay proper respect to all the allies and their contributions. For whatever reason, filmakers seem to have forgotton that the US (ok sometimes they throw in the UK too) were not the only ones fighting in WWII. I mean really...the Soviet's were good for more than just Vodka. And what about the Pole's, or the French resistance, or the rest of the allies?

Here Here!!!!

Howdy fellas,

In an attempt to get back to the original thread tag of "Historical or Hysterical", but to also diverge a wwe bit from WW II. I toss one of my favourite 'war' movies on the table for critique......
ZULU!
I'm quite sure I don't have to discribe it to this bunch, but from most of the literature I've read, the movie was pretty darn accurate (I'm excluding the whole scene with the preacher's daughter's torn dress 'thingie' of course).

What do you fellas think?

There was also a pretty good film about the engagement just previous to Rourke's Drift starring (one of my fav's) Burt Lancaster called Zulu Dawn. Even though I haven't seen it in quite awhile, I seem to remember it being fairly accurate as well......

Tread.

Hey Tread,
Zulu Dawn is a true Star Wars style prequel to Zulu, illustrating the events surrounding the British getting a serious arse-kicking at Isandlwana.
They're both written by Cy Enfield and are supposed to be pretty much on the nail.
They are also excellent films- Over thew Christmas Hols I managed to watch Zulu three times on cable at different times on different channels over the course of one week, and didn't get bored! Excellent all round- cast, scenery, music and the plot's not bad either!

Well, it's broadly accurate as regards the events themselves, but some artistic licence was taken with characterisation to improve the dramatic effect.
Much of the success of the defence rested with Commissary Dalton, who played a much larger & more active part in fact than as depicted in the film. He was a former warrant officer with many years service, commissioned into the commissariat & was the only officer in the garrison who had seen action before.
The James Booth character, Private Hook was not a drunk or a barrack room lawyer, but a conscientous soldier & husband, who had joined the army because the mortgage was forclosed on his business. When he returned from South Africa, his wife, thinking him dead, had remarried!
Private Fred Hitch & Cpl Allen were awarded their VCs for helping evacuate the sick from the hospital despite being already wounded themselves. The hospital had become detached from the remainder of the garrison, as the sheer pressure of the Zulus had forced the defenders to abandon the wall linking the store & the hospital. The evacuation was in the way of "running the gauntlet" of the enemy, not as depicted in the film. Generally the defence was far more "desperate" than in the film, but obvoiusly there were limits as to what could be filmed!
At the time of the action, Colour Sgt Bourne was in his 20's. He was affectionally nicknamed "the laddie" in the company. He was however, as depicted in the film, an excellent NCO.
At the time of Rorkes Drift, the 24th Foot was not in any way a "Welsh" regiment, it was correctly titled the 24th (Warwickshire) Regiment. There were some Welshmen in B company, who had been recruited in Birmingham, but they were outnumbered by Englishmen & Irish! There was a Territorial battalion affiliated to the regiment styled the South Wales Borderers, the title the regiment would assume post the Cardwell reforms of 1881.
As regards uniform details, in 1879 the scarlet frock was unpiped, except for the "crowsfoot" on the cuffs. The collar was plain red as the rest of the coat, but with grass green tabs at the front bearing a Sphinx, referring to service in Egypt. THe NCOs ranking was incorrectly shown as being on the left arm, when it would of course been on the right.

Hi Steve
Great write up on the Zulu War Phillip Knight has written some awsome books on the subject.The SWBs was my dads regiment spent many an hour at the Museum in Brecon this is the link for the Museum

http://www.rrw.org.uk/museums/index.htm

Cheers Chris

Steve-
I am once again reminded why I read this forum!
although now I will probably have to watch the film again and complain about what's wrong with it, lol.

Mind you, I did know about the Welsh thing, coz I had a 'discussion' with a former colleague who was half-welsh and claimed sovereignty over Rourkes Drift- a quick search of the web satisfied our curiosity.

Thanks for the info.

MC

Anyone remember Das Boot.. I thought it was nice to see a war film from the other side of the fence.. First time I saw it, I was hooked. I think they caught the sense of life or death felt by the U-Boat crews extremely well..

How about 'Stalingrad'? Not much in the way of laughs there. Don't know how accurate it is but it's certainly grim and intense.

As well as others, like 'a Bridge to Far' or 'Platoon', Das Boot really grips me from the start. I saw this first on German TV,the TV version which is a lot longer than the movie. No subtitles to distract you ( helps if you speak German though ). It starts right from the opening credits, the theme tune and water shots of the sub emerging are perfect, haunting, much as Adagio in Platoon.

What about 'the Great Escape' ?
'Dambusters'
'Telemark' (was it called that?)
'The Eagle has landed'

or one of my favourites, 'Kelly's Hero's'.... :-)
(I know, there are some historical in accuracies in that one, but hey..)

Cheers
Henk

One of my favourites. 'Stalingrad' is a bit like a German version but without the happy ending.

Another good one (I think) for accuracy is 'Is Paris Burning?' Nice use of newsreel to augment the action, and some excellent footage of vehicles. Plus it has a damn fine theme tune! Good theme tunes are important in war films.

Tom,
I'm affraid that there is no historical ground for Jack Higgins's book, 'The Eagle Has Landed'. The story was based on a (propaganda) film from 1942. See this link for more info http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0412/is_2_31/ai_107041433

Henk

Henk, thanks for that highly useful link..

One thing no-one has raised much are the 'Hollywood Travesties' of history such as U-571, Pearl Harbor, or even Errol Flynn in Burma...Now these deserve a good pasting...Jim :-) Battle of the Bulge and Tobruk come close as well...

Oh come on Jim, U-571 was a HIGHLY accurate film historically. We all know Matt McCaughnahey (SP?) was a hero of WWII and personally stole the Enigma machine.

LOL

Pearl Harbor had only two good things going for it, the attack sequence looked great on screen and Kate Beckinsale always looks good on screen.

Jim, talking about inacurate movies, what about ' Escape to Victory' ? I mean, I know that a team of POW escaped after a game of football (as in SOCCER), but winning the game without penalties.....no way..
:-) :-) :-) :-)

Henk